James Harden and Kristaps Porzingis Have Career Nights

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James Harden got his share of layups in a 56-point game against the Jazz.CreditTroy Taormina/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

By Victor Mather

Nov. 6, 2017

It was a big weekend for big games in the N.B.A. LeBron James had the first 50-point game of the season, scoring 57 on Friday night. Then on Sunday, James Harden had a career high 56 points, overshadowing Kristaps Porzingis’s 40 on the same night.

Harden’s 56-point effort was all the more remarkable in that he did it in only 35 minutes. With the Rockets leading the Jazz by 30 after three quarters, and Harden on 54 points, there was little call for him to play garbage time. He left with seven and a half minutes to go and did not return.

The last player to score so many points in so few minutes was Klay Thompson, for the Warriors against the Pacers in December 2016: 60 in 29. The last before that was Kobe Bryant in 2005 (62 in 33) and 2002 (56 in 34).

Harden was 19 for 25 from the floor on Sunday: That is the fewest shots in a 56-point game since Michael Jordan had 58 on 16-for-25 shooting in 1987 against the Nets.

But perhaps most amazing of all was that Harden found time to provide for his teammates as well. He had 13 assists, the most in a 56-point game since at least the 1983-84 season, when assist records become complete. He scored or assisted on 91 points on the night, third all time, ESPN reported, behind Wilt Chamberlain in his 100-point game (two assists) and Harden himself in 2016 (53 points, 17 assists against the Knicks). (When Kobe Bryant scored 81 in 2006, he, like Chamberlain, had only two assists.)

Harden was 7-for-8 from 3-point range; that accuracy led Jazz defenders to come out further and further to guard him, opening easy drives for layups. He just missed the Rockets team points record, which is 57 by the 5-foot-9 Calvin Murphy in 1978.

“I was just shooting it, I don’t know,” Harden insisted to ESPN after the game when asked about his numbers. “I don’t really pay too much attention to it.”

Harden’s monster game eclipsed Porzingis’s own career high of 40 in the Knicks’ 108-101 come-from-behind victory over the Pacers at the Garden.

Porzingis was 15 for 24 from the field, with eight rebounds and a season-high six blocks.

In his first two seasons in the league, Porzingis had a total of three 30-point games. But he has seven in nine games this season, his first playing without Carmelo Anthony, now with the Thunder.

“The challenge is never too big for me,” Porzingis told NBA.com on Sunday. “I always accept the challenge, and that’s why I knew coming in to this season, if Melo was not going to be here, then I am going to have to be the guy.”

James’s game Friday might have been the best of them all. He totaled 57 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. The Basketball-Reference statistic Game Score, which factors in everything a player does, rated it the fourth-best game of the century, trailing only Bryant’s 81-point game, Devin Booker’s 70-pointer last season and Anthony Davis’s 59-point game in 2016.

James made 23 of his 34 shots. It was something of an old-school performance; many of his shots were classic turnaround jumpers. He attempted only four 3-pointers.

“I’ve been working quite a bit on my turnarounds and my fadeaways and my footwork, things of that nature, and I was able to get to it,” he told ESPN. “Once I fade, I really don’t see the defender as much, and I’m just focusing on the target.”

The Cavs have struggled this season, with the new acquisition Isaiah Thomas yet to play because of a hip injury. James’s big night to beat a good Wizards team seemed to indicate they can’t be written off as a contender, though, as long as he remains in the lineup, even if on Sunday the Cavs (4-6) were back to losing, 117-115, at home to the Hawks. James had 26 points.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B10 of the New York edition with the headline: Harden’s Big Night: 13 Assists (and 56 Points). Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe